TEFL Activities for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a great special occasion to have fun in the ESL classroom, but teachers must remember that it is important to meet the class objective and Valentine’s Day activities must succeed with teaching a language point or skill.

Here are some examples of Valentine’s Day activities for teaching English effectively:

Broken Hearts Matching: For this activity, the teacher can make paper hearts and cut them in half. One half will have part of a sentence and the other will have the other half. Students have to walk around the class to find their match. This activity is perfect for reviewing any conjunctions (for, because, if…) and developing speaking skills.

Nowadays, the whole world knows about the history of Valentine’s Day, so introducing the topic yourself may be boring and ineffective. Instead, find an interesting text on Valentine’s Day or poem to teach a reading comprehension class and follow up with activities that help your students practice the language point being taught for that day.

Using movies in the ESL classroom is a great way to teach any topic. Every year Hollywood produces a new movie for Valentine’s Day and famous movies like Valentine’s Day or I Hate Valentine’s Day can be used to teach listening skills, teach or review a grammar point, and spark discussions about how people feel on Valentine’s Day according to their relationship status.

Role-playing is very effective, especially with one-to-one students, for practicing speaking skills. Ordering in a restaurant or answering questions at a matchmaking agency are common ESL activities for Valentine’s Day.